MCCA AGM Monday 13th July at The Plough

The Annual General Meeting of the Middlesex County Chess Association will take place soon.

Date: Monday July 13th 2015

Venue: The Plough, 27 Museum Street, Bloomsbury, London, WC1A 1LH

Time:  7pm. 

Agenda: Please send items for discussion to me at adamraoof@gmail.com

We are being hosted by Drunken Knights Chess Club, and not being charged for the hire of the room, so please buy a drink from the bar.

Minutes from last year's AGM will appear here.

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R.I.P. Colin Crouch, International Master

We will all have our personal anecdotes of our encounters with him both on and off the board. Certainly as his captain during Middlesex's current incarnation he was a cornerstone upon which we built that led to both the revival and current success of the team. Chess apart he can be honestly said be a scholar and gentleman and for many reasons he will be missed by us all. May he rest in peace.  AF

Middlesex juniors are regional winners

Middlesex U14/130 juniors beat Sussex on Sunday to win the East Zone in the Southern Counties Chess Championships.

This is a fantastic feat by the team made up of secondary school juniors in Years 7-9. 

The team on Sunday in Board Order was Gabriel Balouka-Myers, Reuben Balouka-Myers, Harrison Willmoth, Jacob Goldberg, Liam Reed, Dylan Hung, Devin Karia, Tej Shah, Zachary Potel, Ruben van der Lubbe, Max Faircloth and Joshua Wong.

In the end it was a comfortable win - 16.5 to 7.5. But there were some close games which could have gone either way and a number of games where Middlesex players were material down but turned the situation around.

Eight of the 12 players were undefeated. Reuben Balouka-Myers, Devin Karia, Tej Shah, Zachary Potel and Max Faircloth won both their games. Gabriel Balouka-Myers, Harrison Willmoth and Ruben van der Lubbe won one and drew the second game.

To win the zone, Middlesex played four matches over the season. They drew with Essex and Surrey and beat Kent and Sussex. This was a great team effort with 19 juniors representing the county over these matches. In the other matches, the team included Sam Cohen, Emmanuelle Gelain-Sohn, Lara Mallin, Nikita Nunes, Adam Rosenthal, Charlie Sprung and Arnav Varma.

It was a very closely fought zone this season with three counties in the running for first place - Middlesex, Surrey and Sussex - depending on the result of the match on Sunday.

The team will now face Berkshire who won the West Zone in the Southern Counties Final.

Middlesex U14/130 win in Kent puts them in zonal decider

Middlesex U14/130 chess team earned their first win of the season against Kent in Sevenoaks yesterday

The win following draws against Essex and Surrey puts the team in a title decider against Sussex in mid April.

With one game outstanding Middlesex lead the match 12.5-10.5. The final unresolved game will either be a win for Middlesex or a draw.

This is a great win for Middlesex juniors and a great team effort.

It was another close match. After Round 1, Middlesex were leading 6.5-5.5. Kent were White in Round 2 and at one point the scores were 10.5-10.5 but we held our nerve in the three remaining matches - winning two with the third awaiting a ruling from the Southern Counties Chess Union.

Again, there were some very good individual performances. Jacob Goldberg (Board 4) and Emmanuelle Gelain-Sohn (Board 11) won both their matches. Reuben Balouka-Myers (Board 2), Harrison Willmoth (Board 3) and Liam Reed (Board 5) were also undefeated with a win and a draw.

This result means a win against Sussex in our final fixture would make Middlesex the zonal winners which would be a fantastic feat.

Kamlesh Karia

Middlesex U14/130 Team Manager